Well, I happened to have these two pens on hand, so I thought I’d go ahead and get their reviews out-of-the-way… First off, we have the Zebra Sarasa Stick 0.3mm Gel Pen… I have to say that a few of the pens that I bought this time from JetPens were a little too fine for my tastes (yes, there is such a thing as “too fine”). This 0.3mm gel pen teetered on the brink of being too fine, but barely managed to squeak out as ok.

The pen design in itself is interesting… The cap features a binder clip, much like the Sarasa Clips. The grip is interesting in that it has two strips cut out of the rubber (which I assume is meant to be where you hold it), and I will admit that it’s relatively comfortable.

Now for the downsides… While I’m normally a fan of the Zebra Sarasa line, this pen has a couple of drawbacks. First, as I mentioned above, the tip is almost too fine for my tastes. Not enough ink is laid down on the paper as I write, and it makes a huge amount of noise while doing so (ie. pen scratching on paper). I’m sorry Zebra, but you didn’t capture my heart with this one… Better luck next time…

2.5 out of 5 stars…

Pen #36.
Pentel Hybrid Technica Retractable 0.5mm Blue Gel Pen

After my last Hybrid Technica Review , I was a little wary (due to ink/tip quality) of ordering another one, but when I saw that JetPens had a blue retractable (and a red refill) on sale, I figured why not go ahead and at least give them a try… So, I did, and I must admit that I was pleasantly surprised! This Technica writes extremely smoothly (close to Energel quality) and seems to just flow over the paper. There’s little to no scratchiness or skipping while writing, and the ink is a beautiful, deep blue… I actually can’t wait for the ink to run out of the blue cartridge so that I’m able to try out the red cartridge! The pen is also pretty comfortable to use, featuring a nice, wavy-line textured grip which is easy to hold onto. I definitely will have no qualms about ordering some more of these in the future!